QPR swoop for duo

Wayne Routledge

12 April 2012

QPR have signed Newcastle winger Wayne Routledge on loan until the end of the season and added former Blackburn defender Pascal Chimbonda to their squad.

Routledge, 26, has returned to the club he left in January last year, when he signed for the Magpies, and is expected to play a major role in the push for promotion to the Barclays Premier League.

Routledge has made 36 appearances to date for Newcastle, but has played a peripheral role in recent weeks.

"I think Wayne just needs an arm around him," said QPR boss Neil Warnock. "He is a super lad and a super player."

Thirty-one-year-old Frenchman Chimbonda was released by Blackburn this week and Warnock moved swiftly to add him to the Loftus Road ranks, on a contract running for the rest of the campaign.

Chimbonda told www.qpr.co.uk: "This is a good opportunity for me to be re-born as a footballer. Neil Warnock has given me a chance here and hopefully I can help QPR win promotion to the Premier League.

"I had a good talk with the manager, and he told me he wants me to come here and give my best. He is a manager who likes to win, and I am the same."